


So Oblivious

by cresswells



Category: Darkest Powers - Kelley Armstrong
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-18
Updated: 2012-08-18
Packaged: 2017-11-12 10:10:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/489700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cresswells/pseuds/cresswells
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Maybe it was because we knew the house was close, but that mile seemed to pass in minutes. We talked and joked and goofed around."</p>
<p>While on their way to Andrew’s house, Chloe introduces Derek to her world... movies. In which Derek is cutely jealous and Chloe is cutely naive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	So Oblivious

Despite her hunger, despite the danger they'd only narrowly escaped from, and even despite the acute aching of her legs as they walked, Chloe found herself laughing harder than she could remember in weeks.

It was crazy, she thought, the difference a few days could make. She could still vividly recall her explosive fight with Derek just three nights ago. And now here they were, walking from the bus stop to Andrew's place, laughing and goofing around as they went. Derek had just finished an alarmingly accurate impression of Tori and then doubled up in guffawing laughter, unable to continue.

Conversation was flowing easily between the two of them, and now, it somehow moved from Tori, to sandwich filling preferences, to their mutual hatred of most sports and finally, as most conversations did, to their current situation.

"It's been like something from a bad horror movie," Chloe said, still giggling. "Like _House of the Dead_. Or _Day of the Dead_." She paused, thinking. "Actually, just about any zombie movie with the words '...of the dead' in the title is pretty much guaranteed to be a flop."

Derek stopped laughing, his brow furrowing. "I don't think I know either of those."

"You don't want to," she said with another laugh. "Don't get me wrong, there are a few zombie movies with decent plots out there. They're just very, very rare."

Derek shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I don't think I've ever seen _any_ zombie movies."

"That is because you are in dire need of film education," she told him, sighing over-dramatically and shaking her head.

"Ah, of course. Now I know how to push my IQ up another notch. _Useless movie trivia_."

She mimed punching him. "Hey! Don't knock my best subject!"

He grinned down at her. "That's right. I almost forgot. Useless movie trivia is as important to you as math or science is to me."

"Math and science are the useless subjects in my future profession," she declared, unknowingly rising to his bait. "And besides, I'll have you know that I am the running champion in A. R. Gurney's film club for the 'guess-the-movie' game."

He snorted. "Is that some kind of performing arts school ritual? Do I even want to know?"

"It's just a stupid game that me and my friend Nate used to play," she explained. "One of us would recite a quote, and the other had to guess the movie it came from. A couple of the other kids caught on and it sort of became a weekly tradition."

She sighed, remembering those easier days. It seemed like a lifetime ago now. Just thinking about it made her feel older than her fifteen years of age.

"So useless movie trivia really _is_ your best subject," Derek joked, pulling her out of her reverie.

"Of course," she said proudly.

"So, uh... how exactly did that work then?" Derek asked awkwardly now. For the last few hours, the awkwardness between them seemed to have settled for at least a little while. But perhaps Derek wasn't used to asking prying questions. Chloe knew the feeling – she liked to keep to herself too.

"You just think of a quote and say it. Like... _I'll be back_ ," she quoted in a bad Austrian accent. And then almost immediately and much to her chagrin, she found herself blushing, remembering her errant thoughts from the day before as she watched Derek crouch, tensed and shirtless on the ground, looking like Schwarzenegger and sending her mind spinning off-track.

Luckily, Derek didn't seem to have noticed her inexplicable embarrassment. He was frowning, puzzled.

"I've heard it catch-phrased," he said finally. "But I wouldn't be able to tell you where it comes from."

She raised her eyebrows. Sure, she knew she'd seen more films than the average fifteen-year-old, but she had thought _everyone_ knew that movie. She tried another.

" _You're gonna need a bigger boat._ "

Derek looked at her strangely. "I thought that was just an everyday saying. It came from a movie?"

Chloe choked out a laugh and shook her head in amazement. "Oh, wow. You really don't know these?" It was quite refreshing to find something he didn't know. Sure, he could stump her any day on most normal subjects, and he may be a university-level math student, but when it came to movies, Chloe knew she had the upper hand.

Still, it was a little nerve-wracking seeing that he didn't have all the answers for once.

" _Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore?_ " she tried. By now, her movie quotations sounded like questions even to her ears.

Still, no reaction.

"I don't know, Chloe. I'm not... can you give me an easier one?"

"They all have been pretty easy," she muttered under her breath. Derek groaned. Oops. She'd forgotten about his super-hearing.

"Okay, okay, sure. Um... _'Nobody puts Baby in the corner.'_ "

Derek frowned in concentration. "It doesn't sound familiar at all."

She stopped walking then and stared at him, wide-eyed. "C'mon. ' _Nobody puts Baby in the corner'?!_ That's like, the easiest movie quote ever! How could you _not_ know that one?!"

His stance instantly became defensive. "You're the movie freak, remember?"

She snorted. "Yeah, but I thought everyone had seen _Dirty Dancing_."

"I've heard _of_ it." He scrunched his nose up in distaste. "Sounds like a girly kind of movie though."

"It's a classic."

"Right." He sounded sarcastic, but not doubtful. She smiled with satisfaction – he'd learnt to trust her endless knowledge when it came to movies.

"If this game included anything of educational value, I'd win," he grumbled, scuffing the ground with his sneaker. _Of course,_ she realised, remembering Simon's story about Derek's science fair experiment on decomposition. From what she'd heard of Derek's academic achievements from Simon, he was a bit of a sore loser. She wondered how she could turn this game around in his favour.

"So..." She stalled for a while, trying to imagine herself in his shoes. "What kind of movies did you watch as a kid? I mean... not back _then_ with the Edison Group, but you know, with Simon and your dad..."

Crap. Maybe she could have worded that garbled sentence a little bit more sensitively.

He shrugged. "I don't really remember."

"C'mon," she pressed. "You must at least have a favourite." Chloe had several favourites, and countless reviews, blogs she'd followed, upcoming projects and directors she had her eye on...

Derek huffed. "I really don't know," he said. "I mean... I used to go to the movies with Simon and our dad occasionally. And then Simon discovered girls and decided that he'd rather go to the cinema with them, without me and dad trailing along. Can't say I blame him."

"Oh." Chloe wondered what she could say to this. She felt the heat rising in her cheeks. Derek snuck a covetous glance towards her.

"That'll be you and him now, I guess."

Were Chloe's ears deceiving her, or did his voice sound strangely gruffer than usual? Almost as if he'd had trouble getting the words out. There was a forced casualness about his manner. It was odd, since a few moments ago they'd been completely at ease together.

"I guess," she said. She hadn't given it much thought, but it did seem obvious now. She liked movies – and Simon, too. The prospect should make her feel giddy. Instead, she felt... not excitement, but a kind of blasé acceptance.

Yeah. Sure. Whatever.

She sighed. Maybe she really _wasn't_ a normal teenage girl.

"So come on then," she encouraged, partly wanting to change the conversation, although she wasn't entirely sure why. "What was the last film you remember watching?"

" _Jurassic Park_ ," he grunted after only a moment's thought. "It was one of the only non-Disney movies Lyle House had. And it still sucked."

She grinned. "I noticed too. So you like movies with a bit more action? Or you're just not a fan of Disneyfied kids' films?"

He laughed. "Both. On the rare occasion that I ever saw any movies, they were always way above the PG-13 rating. I would buy the tickets and sneak Simon in later. My size came in handy there."

"I'll bet," she replied enviously.

He grinned, reminiscing. Chloe smiled up at him, watching. _He looks so carefree,_ she thought. Sure, he was still tense, no doubt from his painful part-change yesterday and the worry he always carried around for Simon. But he also seemed happy to be out in the open again. She could barely reconcile this laughing, joking boy with the dangerous, creepy kid who'd thrown her across the laundry room floor just a week and a half ago in Lyle House.

Had it really only been a week and a half? She shook her head in disbelief. It seemed longer than that. She honestly believed that she knew more about Simon and Derek now than any of her old friends at A. R. Gurney High. Even now, without consciously realising it, she'd begun to refer to them as _old_ friends. She wondered if that made Derek a _new_ friend, though the thought seemed strange. If anything, she felt as though she'd known him forever.

When she looked up again, she found that Derek was watching her. He looked away as she caught his eye. She'd noticed him doing that a lot over the past few days.

"We're nearly there," he muttered gruffly again. "Just a couple more roads, I think."

"Right."

They walked a few more steps in companionable silence.

"When all this is over, I'll take you to see a real movie," Chloe suddenly declared. "Something cool, but not overhyped. Something edgy. You clearly need to be educated in the glory of cinema."

He stopped walking again and raised his eyebrows.

"What?" she asked. She'd thought it was a brilliant idea, but now a cold prickle of dread passed through her. "I mean... you don't have to... if you don't want. I just sort of assumed that once we sort our lives out again, we'll keep in touch. You, me, Simon..."

She wasn't quite sure why she felt so frightened when Derek didn't answer straight away. After all, they hadn't known each other _that_ long, and they fought like cat and dog sometimes. But spending the last few days with him had given her some perspective. Derek was complicated and annoyingly over-protective and harsh at times, but he was also a good, loyal friend. She didn't know how she and Simon would have survived outside Lyle House if they'd gone with the original plan and left Derek behind.

At her mention of Simon's name, Derek seemed to relax. He shook his head and breathed a sigh of... Relief? Disappointment? She wasn't sure which.

"Yeah. Sure. We'll still... hang out."

Something about his smile seemed forced now.

"You look nervous," Chloe said with an easy laugh. "Scared I'm going to make you sit through a chick-flick?"

Derek barked out another genuine laugh.

"What?" She'd thought it was an accurate assumption. She was, after all, a girl.

"You don't like romantic comedies," Derek said matter-of-factly. "It was pretty obvious at Lyle House."

It was Chloe's turn to scrunch up her nose this time, as she remembered with distaste, the movie Miss Van Dop had let them watch back in Lyle House. But Derek hadn't been in the room... he'd been upstairs with Simon, apparently studying for a test...

But of course, she hadn't known of Derek's enhanced senses at that time.

Now it was her turn to raise her eyebrows.

"What?" he asked defensively. "You were the weird new necromancer girl. I was keeping an eye on you back then for Simon's sake, remember?"

She snorted. She remembered only too well how he'd tried to get her to play the part of a damsel-in-distress. "And that included eavesdropping?"

"It's not like I have a choice what I hear. Rae's snores were pretty loud, and you weren't much better."

She poked him hard in the stomach. "I do not snore!"

"No, you just sleep- _sing_ ," he retorted, but then stopped immediately, obviously unwilling to bring back memories of her night in the woods.

"Sorry," he muttered.

"S'okay."

The silence between them was thicker now. Derek seemed tenser than ever.

"What?" she asked, daring him to speak his mind.

"Nothing," he said. "Nothing at all."

"So you'll let me drag you to a movie theatre, then?" She nudged him playfully as she spoke, wondering _why_ he was suddenly so tense.

"Okay," he said quickly. So quickly, it was almost as if he were afraid she'd take the offer back.

But why would she? They were friends now, right? And friends watched movies together. Right?

Chloe shook her head. She had the niggling feeling that she was missing something.

"So, do you have any movie quotes to share before we get there?" she asked now, wanting to steer them back to the part of the conversation that had made sense to her.

Derek looked alarmed at the thought. "Sure," he muttered. "Uh... _May the Force be with you_."

She grinned. "Star Wars Episode Four! You like sci-fi?"

Derek laughed. "That was the first film I can remember watching with Simon and Dad. And don't ask me to quote from anything else – or even anything else from that movie. That's pretty much all I know."

"Well we can see a sci-fi, I suppose," she said. "I like sci-fi. And after everything we've gone through in the last few weeks, I don't think I could sit through a fantasy movie."

"No ghosts and werewolves in the foreseeable future of your film career then?"

"Nope. Definitely not. No sorcerers, either," she said. "Seriously, though, it'll be nice to just relax after all of this. I can't remember the last time I saw a movie with a friend – and for me, that's shocking! I think we could all do with a good movie trip once we're out of harm."

Chloe laughed to herself, but the sound was thin and died instantly in the frigid air. The mood seemed to have shifted as she spoke. Derek was silent. She glanced over at him and saw that just like that, he was sullen and expressionless _again_.

A few days ago, Chloe wouldn't have dared to speak to him when he was in this mood. But she knew Derek better now – or at least, she'd like to think she knew him better. And she suspected that if she let him, he'd sulk for the rest of the journey to Andrew's. It may not be far now, but she still really didn't want that.

"What is it?" she asked again.

"Nothing." He shrugged his shoulders, as if unloading a heavy, unreadable thought from his mind. "Sure. Sci-fi it is."

"Great."

"With Simon, of course," he muttered.

Actually, she hadn't considered inviting Simon along as well. She'd meant for them to go separately. But sure. Why not?

"Yeah," she said. "Simon too."

He grunted. She rolled her eyes and steered the conversation back to safer topics.

They made their way closer towards Andrew's house, both of them aware of the tension, but only one of them really knowing why it was there. For now.

And until she figured it out, he sure wasn't going to say a word.


End file.
